tv – Page 19 – Rob Mansfield: Content-ment

TV Burp – TV joy!

Harry Hill’s TV Burp is easily the funniest thing on TV at the moment.

It’s both clever and also accessible on many different levels. I can imagine kids laughing at much of it, while the self-referential gags (a trademark of Harry Hill, anyway) elevate it to a different plane.

The true measure of the show can be seen by the fact that he regularly gets other TV celebs to appear on the show, usually sending themselves up – no mean feat, let’s face it.

I know Saturday night is primetime scheduling, but I can’t help feel it doesn’t get the appreciative audience there that it truly deserves.

Forget your Mitchell & Webb’s or Mighty Boosh’s of the programming landcsape, TV Burp is an unconfined joy from start to finish. If you haven’t watched it yet, set your Sky+ or make a date for Saturday evenings.

Check out this YouTube clip for a taster

The Kill Point

I’ve now watched the first two episodes of new US drama The Kill Point that’s showing on Bravo TV.

It’s like a cross between Dog Day Afternoon and 24 – a bank job gone wrong and the ensuing fallout, told in ‘real time’.

It stars, among others, Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguiziamo (pictured above) and is amazingly compelling.

I find it amazing, as I have previously expounded on this blog, that a quality series such as this can be shown on a minority channel such as Bravo.

Yes, it’s American and, as such, has more dollars behind it, but it’s streets ahead of much of what this country produces.

And yet, and yet, it only gets shown on a non-terrestrial channel and reaches a minimal audience. Astounding!

Anyway, if you get the chance to check it out, Wednesdays, 10pm on Bravo. You won’t be disappointed!

The Osbournes at the BRITs – why?

So The Brits are over for another year and yet more controversy abounds, mainly as a result of the presenters: the Osbourne family.

I know that organisers are concerned with ratings and also keeping alive the slightly rebellious spirit of the awards, but handing over the presenting duties to four people who, at best, would struggle to keep a kids’ party in check smacks of total insanity.

The opprobrium that gets heaped on the likes of Fearne Cotton (who was doing backstage duty last night), Dermot O’Leary, Davina McCall and Cat Deeley masks how tough it is to ‘do’ live TV.

Last night, Sharon and Kelly in particular were just woeful imbuing the proceedings with an air of ‘who gives a fuck’ when they made mistakes.

The fact that Sharon resorted to swearing like a trooper shows how little experience, control and ability she has. Her command of the autocue put me in mind of a five-year-old who just mastered Janet & John, and the way she shoved off Vic Reeves at the end was reminiscent of my gran when she didn’t like what you were listening to on the radio.

Ironically, the member of the family who seemed most at ease and in control was the one who was given least to do, Jack.

Some of the flak should clearly be aimed at the organisers of the event. Rightly commended on bringing it back to primetime TV a couple of years ago, they did well with Chris Evans as the first new presenter.

Last year Russell Brand was OK and at least he has an ability to present and tell jokes properly.

It seems to me that the powers-that-be now need to decide what they want from the event: a comedian, a presenter or someone who is respected in the music industry.

Sadly, the Osbournes fall down on at least two of those categories and, even with Ozzie among them, I’m no longer sure if they are even respected in music circles.

I guess they got it right in one way: everyone’s talking about the event the morning after.